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The young women would be less sensitive to stress that the men. But after the menopause, it would be rather the inverse. Does one have to conclude some that the feminine hormones have a soothing action? Between war of the sexes and war of stress. The German team of the Dr Olivier Wolf is interested in the phenomena that influence the reactions to stress, as age, the sex and the hormonal secretions. In this goal, she has just achieved a study 1 among 58 students of the two sexes aged of 20 to 30 years and in perfect health. In a first time, 22 of these volunteers should have learned a list of words. One confronted them then to one stressful experience, especially for least good in mental calculation: to count 17 backwards in 17 from the number 2 043. Finally, they should have mentioned the words again learned in public. The 36 other students participated in the test of memorization without being submitted to the test of stress and served witnesses therefore thus. In the same way, the researchers measured the concentration of cortisol in saliva before and 10 minutes after the test. Made by the adrenal glands, this hormone plays a big role classically in the phenomena of stress. ..The young men more sensitive to the stress The main result of this survey was to reveal that the young men, who produce the strongest quantities of cortisol in answer to stress, are also those at which the capacities of memory are the more altered by the test of stress. On the other hand, no phenomenon of this kind has been noted at the young women having participated to the experience. These results awakened the curiosity of the researchers that had noted in previous works that the memory of the women of 50 years is affected more by the elevation of the cortisol associated to stress. ..Does the estrogen decrease stress? To explain this difference, the psychologists of Düsseldorf emit the hypothesis that the estrogen would modulate the answer to stress therefore. Indeed, these feminine hormones are secreted by the ovaries and see their rates collapsing after the menopause. Besides, other studies of the same team showed that the answer to the stress of some cerebral structures, as the hypothalamus and the hypophysis, that are sensitive to the effects of the estrogen are more important at the men that at the femmes2. A modification of the reaction to the test of stress has also been observed by these German researchers at the women taking the pill, which contains one knows it of the estrogen synthetic. The American gynecologists have they also describe a stronger reactivity to the stress, that resulted in an elevation of the arterial pressure, at the women Menopause in comparison of those that he is not encore4. Besides, a protective effect of the estrogènes has been raised at the women Menopause opposite stress. ..A theory to confirm Remain that it is again only about a hypothesis and that this influence of the sexual hormones should be confirmed by other works. Other teams observe a difference besides in the reactions to stress according to the sex, but don't recover on the other hand no effect of age at the women as at the men. Generally, the relations between stress and sex appear very complex. Contrary to the results returned here, investigations done in professional environment revealed thus that the women, notably those that exercise some responsibilities, support stress bound to work less well that the hommes6. Otherwise, he is incontestable that the women are more often treated for anxiety or depression that the men. Business to follow therefore. 2008-12-13
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